The Frugal Indulgent Manifesto*
By raincoaster
It’s easy enough to live it up, given infinite amounts of cash; there are even expensive consultants to ensure you have a good time. As the lovely and perspicacious Glinda noted yesterday, it’s much more challenging to get out and enjoy entertainment, outings, fine foods, vacations, elegant clothing and other indulgences when you’re acutely non-prosperous (“poor”).
If these things are to your taste, you will have to apply your cunning brain and the grease of your very elbow, and you will surprisingly often find that these are enough. The following manifesto perfectly articulates this. It’s been delicately lifted from the book Frugal Indulgents: How to Cultivate Decadence When Your Age and Salary are Under Thirty, by Kera Bolonik and Jennifer Griffin, which we highly recommend to all. Naturally, we here at TeenyManolo are not ageist (and we may even be over thirty!) so we suggest these are applicable for frugals of all ages.
THE FRUGAL INDULGENT MANIFESTO
Frugal Indulgents celebrates liberation from capital:
True bouviessence (glamour at all times for all occasions) is,
believe it or not, independent of money.
There are certain basic principles that apply to every aspect
of life as a Frugal Indulgent.
These concern behaviour and attitude.
Before we begin, we feel it is important that you know where we’re coming from,
so we’ve penned the Frugal Indulgent Manifesto for your reading pleasure.
Follow these rules, and relish your imminently grand lifestyle.
- Never Act Your Age or Your Income. You may be young and poor, but you are also smart and tasteful. Try to let the latter qualities overshadow the former.
- Aim High. If you assume you can’t fly first class on your budget, you never will. Assume that you deserve the best, and try to get it. Sometimes you’ll prevail.
- Exude Confidence. The surer you appear to be about yourself, the surer others will be about you. If you act like you own the place, more often than not you will be treated like the owner.
- Fake it. If you are not confident, you can fake it. You think you aren’t fitting in at an event? Think you’re not qualified for a job? Not worthy of a date with a fabulous person? Shut up about it and pretend that you are. Chances are you are the only one who knows your shortcomings. If you act the part, you may get away with it.
- Never Apologize. The souffle has fallen., You ate the salad with the entree fork. Your sofa has seen better days: So what? Apologies put people on edge. Aplomb in the face of adversity puts people at ease. Friends and strangers will admire you for having the silent courage to showcase your quirks. Smile and keep dancing.
- Be Curious. Read everything. Talk to everyone. Ask questions. The more inquisitive you are, the more information you’ll gather. As the “Schoolhouse Rock” people used to say, knowledge is power.
* This post has been stolen wholesale from one of my other sites, where it lay pining like a neglected Cambodian orphan until being plucked from obscurity and adopted into the dazzlingly glamorous family of the Manolosphere.
February 13th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Great list, Raincoaster! I would add that improvisation and imagination are your friends. When people know they can depend on you to come up with great ideas on the spur of the moment, you’ll be in demand for parties and outings where someone else picks up the tab.
February 13th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Thanks. Truly, I adore that book. It’s worth twice the cover price just for the term “Salvation Armani.”
February 13th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Eek! One of my links doesn’t work! Oh well, it will in a day, so I’ll just leave it, for verily I am lazy, yo.
February 13th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
“Act like you know what you are doing and you can get away with anything..” Has been my mantra since highschool when I use to hang out in the teacher’s lounge. It has never failed me and has gotten me all sorts of places! Fun!
February 13th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
There’s a related saying in show jumping: Throw your heart over the jump, and then jump after it. I use that all the time and by God it works! Connect with the thought that what you want is already yours and it will be. As the beloved podcaster Momo says, the reason manifestation works isn’t that it changes the outside world, but rather that it changes YOU. The universe is constantly offering us opportunities, but we never see them until we are ready.
February 13th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I always aim high. That sounds a little dirty or something, doesn’t it?
February 13th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Not that there’s anything wrong with that!
February 14th, 2008 at 1:10 am
I absolutely love this! Especially the “even if you don’t feel good enough, pretend you are” part. Pretending will carry you through the worst situations, and you know if you pretend something long enough, it becomes true. Here’s to getting whatever you can convince the world you deserve!